On Buccleuch Cup Day, Monday 20 April, we shall be celebrating the valorous life of Adam Scott (1875 – 1925), a north-country soldier and sportsman whose dramatic story, woven like a golden thread through the rich heritage of the northern racing scene, ended in a tragic fall at Kelso.

Born at Lesbury, near Alnwick, the son of a wealthy farmer, Scott was amongst the first to volunteer for the Boer War in the newly-formed Imperial Yeomanry. He served in South Africa with great distinction in the Northumberland Hussars, being awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal in February 1901 at Hartebeestfontein, for continuous and conspicuous gallantry throughout the day, and being mentioned in despatches before returning home in June 1901.

On returning to Alnham, Scott owned and trained a string of racehorses, winning the Scottish Grand National with Barney III in 1907 – before the race moved to Ayr (where this weekend’s selection is Dedicated Hero in the Scottish Champion Hurdle).  Saddling more than forty winners between 1907 and 1924, he won the County Hurdle at Cheltenham with Water Bottle in 1921, and was a regular at the United Border Hunt meeting at Kelso – the first jumps fixture to be regularly staged at the course, following its relocation from Stodrig in 1883.

The feature race of Monday’s card, The Buccleuch Cup, was first run at Kelso in 1885 with a purse of 25 sovereigns and was traditionally restricted to horses qualified with local packs of hounds. Scott, who regularly followed the Coquetdale and Percy hounds, rode without success in the Buccleuch Cup three times. But his great ambition was to win the Northumberland Plate, which he achieved amid scenes of great jubilation, with Jazz Band in 1924.

Bob Todd the celebrated racing farrier referred to Scott in his memoir as “a dour north-countryman, tough, hard-bitten and blunt of speech… handy with his fists, a skilled horseman and a first class shot.” But it was his insistence to Todd, that he’d prefer to go out in the saddle, that is perhaps most poignant. “Think of it, man.” Todd recalled him saying, “Astride a game horse, with your colours fluttering and your blood tingling. Better to die like that than in bed”.

Tragically, Scott died almost instantly on 31 March 1925, when Command fell at the third-last fence in the Springwood Chase at Kelso. Carried off the track on a hurdle, some stories say that his body was ferried home in the front seat of a chauffeur driven Rolls Royce. He is buried, booted, spurred and in his racing colours of light blue with a maroon cap, in the churchyard of St Michael and All Angels, Alnham, his funeral having been attended by family, friends and admirers from all walks of life – reflecting his popularity with all.

As Todd remarked: “Adam Scott was one of the last of the old Bohemians. The pattern was lost and the mould destroyed when such as he passed from the scene.”